


Imaginary Circumstances (the Living Truthfully Method)

by flyingcarpet



Category: Glee
Genre: F/M, Jesse is a dick, Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-25
Updated: 2011-03-25
Packaged: 2017-10-17 06:26:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/173886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flyingcarpet/pseuds/flyingcarpet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I was into it because I thought it'd be a good acting exercise." - Jesse St. James to Shelby Corcoran, S1e19</p>
            </blockquote>





	Imaginary Circumstances (the Living Truthfully Method)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [caramelsilver](https://archiveofourown.org/users/caramelsilver/gifts).
  * Inspired by [The Dice Was Loaded From the Start](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/2779) by caramelsilver. 



> Everything I know about Sanford Meisner and his acting technique, I learned from [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meisner_Technique). Many thanks to S & S for beta-reading and constructive feedback.

The great acting coach Sanford Meisner used to say, "Acting is the ability to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances."

Jesse St. James loves acting, and he knows it's his true calling in life. Even more than singing or dancing or playing instruments, acting is his one passion. And one day soon, he'll be famous: treading the boards on Broadway, accepting Tony awards, receiving the acclaim of his less-talented peers... He may not be _famous_ yet, but there's no reason he can't be _great_.

With that in mind, he leaps wholeheartedly into his latest acting exercise: convincing Rachel Berry to fall in love with him. He's studied the Meisner Technique, the Stanislavski System and the Strasburg Method. Although his circumstances may not be strictly real, he knows he can react to his scene partner with emotional honesty to create an authentic impression.

At William McKinley High School, his acting partner is Rachel Berry, whether she knows it or not.

\-----

"Why are you here?" Rachel asks, when he transfers to McKinley.

Jesse does not hesitate. "For you," he says simply. After all, her role is the Juliet to his Romeo, the Bonnie to his Clyde, the pinball machine to his Tommy. Without Rachel, he would have no reason to attend McKinley. Without Rachel Berry, New Directions would have no talent and no chance at Regionals, so sabotage would be entirely unnecessary.

The line is perfectly delivered, entirely in tune with the moment and with the emotional reality of his character. Jesse almost believes it himself.

He's been cast (by Shelby) as the Romantic Hero, to play opposite Rachel in the improvisational role of a lifetime.

\-----

Rachel expects her ideal leading man to be romantic and thoughtful, so that's what Jesse does. He leaves notes in her locker and serenades her with classic love songs and puts in the extra effort to sweep her off her feet. It helps that Rachel is a lot like him; it's easy to figure out what she'll like.

He shows up at her house with the DVD of _Little Shop of Horrors_ on a Friday night, and she gives him a smile so wide it takes over her whole face. She snuggles up beside him on the couch and presses her breasts to his side as he wraps his arm around her shoulders.

As the opening credits begin, Rachel starts to sing along. She's not humming under her breath, but fully belting out the "No, oh oh, no-oh!" refrain, her voice full-throated and beautiful.

Jesse smiles and sings along with her, and they trade off parts as they go.

"Feed me, Seymour!" Rachel sings, lowering her voice to a growl to mock the plant's throaty purr.

"Does it have to be human?" Jesse sings back, in time with Rick Moranis. He's playing off Rachel, raising his hands in mock horror as if he's actually afraid that she'll eat him for dinner.

"Feed me!" she repeats. There's a twinkle of laughter in her eye, but even while she's just messing around in her dads' basement, Rachel is the consummate performer and she never interrupts the number.

"Does it have to be mine?" Jesse answers, hamming it up, laughing as though this is not a part of his plan to draw her in.

At the end of the song, they collapse back onto the couch, laughing. Rachel's eyes are glowing and her cheeks are flushed, and Jesse has rehearsed this moment in his mind a hundred different times to prepare for this one performance.

He leans in and presses a kiss to her lips, soft and sticky with cherry-flavored gloss.

\-----

"I want to make your dreams come true," he tells Rachel. It's a perfect line for the ideal romantic hero that he's playing, and Rachel obviously thinks so, too. She gazes up at him with so much adoration and emotion in her eyes that for a second, Jesse feels guilty.

Sometimes, in the rush of his own brilliant performance, he forgets that Rachel is not truly his acting partner. But right now, the authenticity of her emotion reminds him. The feelings shining through her eyes are not representations of an ideal, or imagined responses to a scene partner. They're actually _real_.

That kind of undisguised emotion is something Jesse doesn't see very often at Carmel High School. Everyone there is focused on winning, on being the best performers they can be. The show is everything. That's what Shelby's taught them, what they rehearse for hours every day.

Jesse's own feelings are not why he's here at McKinley. What's important are his _goals_. He's here to convince Rachel to contact Shelby and to understand the competition. In order to do that, he's performing the part of the romantic lead. He reminds himself that it's just a role. As an actor it's his job to tap into his emotions to portray his role truthfully. The emotions are just a tool, a means to an end.

Sanford Meisner taught his students to research extensively for each role, to create emotional responses by imagining a play's events in elaborate detail. Jesse has simply done so much preparation for the role of Rachel's ideal man that he's finally able to bring the part to life.

Either that, or he's starting to have real feelings of his own.

\-----

Rachel is already covered with eggs. What harm can one more do? Still, it feels heavy in his hand.

"Do it," Andrea says, and it's not encouragement. It's an order.

Jesse takes a step forward. He doesn't know why he feels reluctant to do this. He was never her real boyfriend, after all.

Still, he hesitates. Finally, Rachel speaks. "Do it," she says, urging him on. The look in her eyes is steely; none of that honest admiration is visible now. "Break it like you broke my heart."

So Jesse does. He steps forward with the egg in his hand and he raises his fist and crushes it just above her forehead so that the yolk dribbles down right into her eyes.

It's a perfect dramatic moment. And even though he's finished playing Rachel's perfect boyfriend, has taken his bows and done his encore in the McKinley auditorium, he gets caught up in the intensity of the moment, the pure emotion between them.

"I loved you," he says, and he's telling the truth.

He just doesn't know if it's really him or the character talking, this time.


End file.
